Cuba Protests Attempts of U.S.to Undermine its Sovereignty

Following is the full text of a Note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in protest of the US government's attempt to flagrantly violate Cuban sovereignty, taken from the official website of MINREX.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered today (yesterday) to the Chargé d'Affaires a.i. of the United States in Havana, Lawrence Gumbiner, a diplomatic note that expresses its strong protest against the claim of the US government to flagrantly violate Cuban sovereignty, with respect to the national competence to regulate the flow of information and the use of mass media, while rejecting the attempt to manipulate the Internet to carry out illegal programs for political purposes and subversion, as part of their actions aimed at altering or changing the constitutional order of the Republic of Cuba. The same note was sent by the Embassy of Cuba in Washington to the Department of State.

The protest was motivated by the announcement by the Department of State, on 23 January, of the decision to convene an "Internet Task Force", composed of officials of the United States Government and representatives of non-governmental organizations, with the stated objective of promoting in Cuba the "free and unregulated flow of information". According to the announcement, this task force will "examine the technological challenges and opportunities to expand Internet access and independent media" in Cuba.

The MINREX note again demands that the Government of the United States cease its subversive, interfering and illegal actions against Cuba, which undermine Cuban constitutional stability and order, and urges it to respect Cuban sovereignty, international laws and the purposes of and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

In its message, the Cuban Foreign Ministry reiterates the determination of the Government of Cuba not to tolerate any type of subversive activity or interference in its internal affairs and, as a sovereign country, to continue defending itself and denouncing the interfering nature of this type of action.

Cuba will continue to regulate the flow of information as is its sovereign right and as is practice in all countries, including the United States. Cuba will also continue advancing in the computerization of its society, as part of the development of the country and in terms of the social justice objectives that characterize its Revolution.